


The Knight and the Pirate

by bewareofitalics



Category: Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-27
Updated: 2013-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-13 04:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/820086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewareofitalics/pseuds/bewareofitalics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Left out of <em>Twelfth Night</em>'s happy ending, Antonio and Sir Andrew find each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Knight and the Pirate

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2005.

When Sebastian and Olivia realized that they really didn’t know each other at all, they set about learning each other by heart. They told stories of their childhoods, of their families, of all their hopes and dreams. Olivia told Sebastian what Cesario had said to win her heart and Sebastian bettered it, murmuring words most poetical into Olivia’s ears, her neck, her mouth. The more the pair learned of each other, the more they thanked Fortune for the happy accidents that had flung them together. Their happiness filled the house.

It was crowding out Antonio. Sebastian had begged him to stay, in the beginning, and Olivia had kindly given him a room, but now they were wrapped up in each other and sometimes did not even come to meals. Antonio stayed on, wandering aimlessly around the house and grounds. He sometimes thought that he should leave, but then sometimes Sebastian would smile at him, or give him a few words, or clap his shoulder, and Antonio found that he could not leave.

Sometimes in his wanderings Antonio encountered Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who had been invited to stay at the house until his head healed. Sir Andrew was also wandering. Sir Toby had rejected his former friend and now spent all his time with Maria, who fussed over his wound and wouldn’t allow him any ale. 

The first time the pirate and the knight ran into each other, Sir Andrew had cringed. “You need not fear me,” Antonio said.

“You did threaten me, earlier,” said Sir Andrew reproachfully.

“Only because I thought you meant harm to Sebastian.”

Sir Andrew laughed ruefully and lightly touched his bandaged forehead. “If it had truly been your friend I fought, you need not have worried for his safety.”

“Indeed,” said Antonio. The two hesitated a moment, then wandered off in separate directions.

The second time they met, they nodded politely to each other. “May I walk with you?” asked Sir Andrew hesitantly when Antonio began to walk away. “I- the house is so quiet, now.” From somewhere came a peal of Sebastian’s laughter. 

“Of course,” said Antonio. He turned down a path in the garden and Sir Andrew followed, a step behind. “How is your head?”

“Not yet healed,” said Sir Andrew. “I know not if I wish it would heal faster or slower.”

“Faster, certainly.”

“But then I would have no reason...”

“No reason?”

Sir Andrew said nothing.

The third time they met was on a bench. Sir Andrew sat, slumping, his chin in his hands and his feet drawing unconscious patterns in the dirt. “Good morrow, knight,” said Antonio as he wandered past. “May I sit?”

“You may,” said Sir Andrew. Antonio sat. After a moment Sebastian and Olivia passed, their faces glowing, Olivia leading her husband to some terribly important spot in the orchard. Antonio’s eyes followed Sebastian hungrily. When the happy couple could no longer be seen, Sir Andrew sighed. “I wish they had not married,” he said.

“Do you love her?” asked Antonio.

Sir Andrew looked startled. “Do I-? Oh. I suppose so, I had not thought of it.”

“Did not you wish to marry her?”

“I did wish…” Sir Andrew paused and tapped his nose. “I did wish to stay on in this house,” he said. “I felt I had a place here.” He looked back at the house. “Now I feel an intruder.”

“As do I,” said Antonio.

“Why do you stay, then?”

“For that I am a coward.”

“You do not seem a coward.”

“It is only lately I have become one.” Antonio cleared his throat. “Why do you stay, if you feel you intrude? Are there not surgeons where you live?”

“Surgeons, ay, but…” Sir Andrew sighed again and gestured awkwardly. “I do not want to stay, but I cannot leave.”

“I understand,” said Antonio softly.

“Do you? I am sure everyone thinks me a fool.”

“It maybe is foolishness to stay where one is not wanted, but ‘tis a foolishness known by many.”

“Mayhap that be the reason I am such a fool. I am not wanted anywhere, and yet I must stay in the world.”

“I thought Sir Toby was your friend?”

“So did I.” Sir Andrew’s mouth tightened. “I have no friends, I think. You are now the only one who will speak to me unless it cannot be helped.”

“Sebastian and the countess speak to you, do they not?” asked Antonio.

“They sometime do speak at me, but not to me,” said Sir Andrew. “Their thoughts be always with each other. Which is to be expected, and only right, but…”

“But not pleasant,” finished Antonio. He too had noticed Sebastian’s new way of speaking: kindly, warmly even, but always with his entire being focused on Olivia.

“No,” Sir Andrew agreed. Fabian walked by, looking somewhat scandalized and failing to acknowledge either Sir Andrew or Antonio. “What is it made you a coward?”

“What?”

“You did say that is why you stay. Is it your friend? Do you fear for his safety? He is now a count and brother of a duchess, none would dare harm him, and besides he doth fight well.”

“What I did fear for Sebastian hath already come to pass.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“And what is it that you did fear?” Sir Andrew stared intently at Antonio, who said nothing. “Is it a secret? I can keep secrets, no one thinks I have any.”

“Have you, then?” Sir Andrew shrugged and gave a smile which was not really a smile. “He married,” said Antonio after a short pause.

After another pause, Sir Andrew whispered, “So did he.”

“The countess, you mean?”

“She said she was to mourn for seven years,” said Sir Andrew. “If she had, mayhap things would have stayed as they were.” 

“And how were they?”

“I was happy.” 

“Because you had a friend.”

“Because I had Sir Toby,” said Sir Andrew. “Thought I had. I gave him money – it pleased me so to see him happy. And now ‘tis as if we never had met, and worse, for if we never had met we could still be introduced, and there is no chance of that now. And now I cannot rejoice in his happiness, and he is not the man I thought him to be, and yet if he would just give me one kind word – oh!” Sir Andrew stamped his foot, sending up a small dust cloud. “But I have spoke too much, you must think me mad.”

“Nay,” said Antonio, “or if so I envy your kind of madness. Had Sebastian proved as false a friend as your Sir Toby I could easily leave, I think.”

“You would then be less mad than I, for I keep my hope that the madness is Toby’s, and he will sometime come to his wits.”

“You would do better to lose your hope.”

“I know it.” Suddenly Sir Andrew turned to Antonio and asked urgently, “Am I what he sayeth, then? An ass-head, a coxcomb, a knave? I know my face is thin, and before God I know I have been a gull, but am I so worthless as all that?”

“Mayhap you have been foolish, good knight, but not worthless, surely.”

“Then what use am I?”

Antonio considered. “You have been a comfort to me in this house,” he said at last.

Sir Andrew stared at him. “Have I?”

“You have,” said Antonio. “Were I left to the silence and the laughter I think I would become mad indeed.”

“And I also,” said Sir Andrew. “So you have also been a comfort to me.”

“I am glad of it,” said Antonio, and smiled slightly.

Sir Andrew smiled back. “Would you- may I then call you friend?”

“You may.”

“Truly?”

“Truly,” said Antonio. “I cannot promise I will be always friendly, but I swear I will never pretend to be if I do not feel so.”

“For that I thank you,” said Sir Andrew, with a wistful laugh. “Now come – now that we are friends, shall we speak of happier things?”

When Sebastian and Olivia again passed by the bench, their hair slightly mussed and leaves sticking to their clothes, Antonio automatically turned to watch them. He found the sight did not hurt quite so much as usual.


End file.
